I didn't find his comments especially entertaining, and I don't think my sense of humour is faulty, so let's rule out the court jester theory.
That leaves "using the best arguments for the case he truly believes in, however weak". This I think would correctly fall under the umbrella of incompetence. At some point, rational people are supposed to evaluate their own arguments and change their beliefs if they can't sustain them anymore.
In this case he has strongly implied that "tech people" with a libertarian bent are naive and their beliefs crumble the moment they're faced with the real world. Insulting the people you need help from isn't a good start. But regardless, I don't know of any tech companies that have real problems complying with a robust, trustworthy process that includes many checks and balances to ensure only people widely agreed to be criminals get investigated. The whole problem has started because that system has broken down over time and post-Snowden been revealed as nothing more than a political sleight of hand.
It can't be called incompetence if he makes the arguments he has been paid (and likely will again be paid) to make. The world is full of highly competent people who do exactly that, many of them lawyers. They're not called 'advocates' for nothing.
But this begs the question why otherwise self-respecting panels so often give a soapbox to propagandists. Perhaps instead of using the mindless daily news formula of pitting two self-interested views against each other to see who has better soundbites we should try to put rational, thoughtful people on the stage.
That leaves "using the best arguments for the case he truly believes in, however weak". This I think would correctly fall under the umbrella of incompetence. At some point, rational people are supposed to evaluate their own arguments and change their beliefs if they can't sustain them anymore.
In this case he has strongly implied that "tech people" with a libertarian bent are naive and their beliefs crumble the moment they're faced with the real world. Insulting the people you need help from isn't a good start. But regardless, I don't know of any tech companies that have real problems complying with a robust, trustworthy process that includes many checks and balances to ensure only people widely agreed to be criminals get investigated. The whole problem has started because that system has broken down over time and post-Snowden been revealed as nothing more than a political sleight of hand.